>>725729529
That was the case, then it co-owned that privilege with Eevee who was ascended to co-mascot status in LGPE, but they completely dropped it starting with Legends: Arceus.
In general, the anime's influence is being removed from the games, even gen 10's looking to finally kill off Animechu in favor of the Pikachu design that's been in non-game non-anime promotional material since 2005.